CAMPAIGN LOAN IS REPORTED BY GOV. MECHAM

PHOENIX, ARIZ., NOV. 16 -- Embattled Gov. Evan Mecham formally reported to the state a $350,000 campaign loan today and said his failure to itemize it earlier was an "honest mistake."

"Tonight I bring you everything in order to allow you to be the judge and the jury," the governor said in a televised address on station KTVK.

Mecham is the subject of a grand jury probe and a recall campaign.

"This isn't a criminal matter. No one to the best of my knowledge has ever been prosecuted under these laws. An honest mistake was made and it has been corrected."

In his half-hour address, Mecham said he had filed amended personal and campaign financial statements with the Arizona secretary of state's office.

On the new statements, he listed a $350,000 loan from Tempe developer Barry Wolfson and the 14 people who signed promissory notes backing the loan.

His previous campaign financial statement listed a lump sum of $465,000 contributed to the campaign by Mecham himself but did not state that $350,000 of it was a loan from Wolfson.

The governor said he did not know there was a problem with the loan not being itemized.

Saying the loan was not a secret, he said there "were at least 30 people in our campaign who knew of this."

However, the governor refused to answer questions about why the loan had not been itemized while a separate contribution from Wolfson had been listed, and why it took the governor until today to file an amended return.